Police Blotter

An officer responded to an optical store for a complaint of theft. The owner gave the name of a known customer who had stolen a pair of Oakley sunglasses valued at $180 from a display case near the door. The owner showed the officer the incident that had been recorded on surveillance video. The officer observed a male approach the case, take out the glasses and try them on, and then put them back in the case. The male then took them out of the case again, began looking both directions, and put the glasses in his left hand. A person identified as the male suspect’s mother was standing beside him when he did this. The suspect and his mother then left the store without attempting to pay for the glasses. It was learned that the suspect’s mother works for the casino, and the officer was able to contact her there. When he told her why he was calling, she replied, “I told him not to take them, and give them back. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, he gone crazy.” She was advised that the store wanted to be paid for the sunglasses, and she agreed to pay for them on Monday, and was told that if the matter was not taken care of, arrest warrants would be issued. The optical store was agreeable with the resolution, but if she failed to pay, they would pursue charges.

FRIDAY, JULY 20

An officer was dispatched to respond to a location of a possible drunk driver on Hwy. 184. In the area of the Anasazi Heritage Center, he observed a car with Arizona plates traveling at approximately 20 mph as it meandered in and out of its lane of travel, or straddled the yellow center line. The officer contacted the vehicle. The driver exhibited many physical indicators of intoxication, and offered a blank stare and appeared confused when looking for his wallet in numerous locations. An officer’s duty belt with no gun or holster, the driver’s keys, driver’s license, and a knife that was on the dashboard of the car when it was pulled over, were all placed on the roof of the car.

An officer was dispatched to Walmart for a report of a shoplifter. The store’s asset protection associate explained that the suspect, had been observed as she selected seven shirts in the women’s department, then went to the shoe department and removed the hangers and concealed the shirts in her purse. The woman then left her cart behind and proceeded to the front of the store, where she left without attempting to pay for the clothing. She was escorted back inside. The woman stated to the officer, “It’s my mom’s birthday; I’m broke and made a bad mistake.” She was issued a summons to appear for shoplifting the seven articles of clothing with a value of $97.18.

SUNDAY, JULY 22

Two officers responded to a gas station for a report of a woman who was claiming that she had just been mugged at her hotel room by her girlfriend and cousin. She said that she was missing her car keys, an I-Pad, and $12,000. She brought the officers to her motel room, where she said that the mugging happened. While speaking with the officers, they noted that the woman was intoxicated and changed her story about five times, naming different amounts of money as stolen, and naming different people as suspects. Her girlfriend, who was sober, arrived and spoke with police, telling them that the reporting party was drunk and left in her car after grabbing her money. She said that no money was taken and she was not beat up, and that she probably went and hid the money she had left, which was about $1,800. When the reporting party was confronted with this information, she told officers that she no longer wanted to press charges and asked them to just leave things alone. The woman turned out to be wanted on a warrant, and was placed into custody.

An officer contacted a Cortez resident regarding a theft from her residence. Someone had stolen a kayak, accessories, fishing poles and tackle from her garage. The resident believed that it had happened the day before when her garage door had been left open for approximately three hours. The kayak was described as a Malibu two-seater, beige in color, that had been purchased recently for $1,000. Also missing were accessories for the kayak, including a flotation vest, gloves, ropes, and paddles, purchased for a total of $500, and three fishing poles with open face reels and tackle valued at approximately $1,000. The total value of the theft was $2,500. Neighbors provided the information that on Thursday night around midnight, they had heard people outside, and one of the people was trying to get another to be quiet.

MONDAY, JULY 23

An officer spoke with a woman in regards to a lost purse that she had left in the movie theater the night before when she went to the late showing. Shortly after she left the theater, she realized she had left her purse under her seat. She returned to the theater and was told that she could not go back into the theater to look under the seat because there was a new movie showing. She checked with the cleaning crew later and they did not find her purse.

An officer was dispatched to Slavens True Value in reference to some found property. A woman had called the police station to report that at approximately 10:40 a.m. she had found a laptop computer and a wireless adaptor lying in the road in front of the store and had picked it up and left it with an employee at the front counter at Slavens, and then left. The officer met with the employee, who gave him the items. The officer looked for a possible name on the laptop and found the name “Anthony Gonzales” on the screen when he turned it on. A possible phone number for the person was located, but officers were unable to reach the person after trying the number several times. The items were placed into property at the police department.

TUESDAY, JULY 24

An officer met with a reporting party in regards to a theft. The day before, he had been at Compliance Drug & Alcohol for a urine test, and was required to take all his jewelry off and put it in a black box. When the victim completed the test, he put his jewelry back on and left the business. About five minutes after he left, he realized that his watch was gone, and went back to the drug testing business to find it. An employee there looked in the box and the watch was not there. The employee told the victim that there were a couple of customers that came in since the time he left; the employee contacted one of them to ask if they had seen the watch, and they said that they did not. The watch was identified as a silver and gold Tag Heuer and worth approximately $3,000.